"Anita Desai is considered one of the foremost Indian authors writing in English. Her novels convey the tangled complexities of Indian tradition, with an economy of language that is clean, simple, and elegantly straightforward."  Denver Post

"One doesn't so much read Ghosh's masterful fifth novel as inhabit his characters and the alluring if treacherous Sundarban archipelago, 'the ragged fringe of [India's] sari,' where it is set . . . an intricate narrative that moves fluidly between past and present."  Publishers Weekly, starred review